Kate Smith Was One Of The Better Players On The Flyers

This is Kate Smith. Born 1907 in Virginia, died 79 years later in 1986.

Kate used to sing God Bless America at Philadelphia Flyers games in the 1970’s. Sometimes she was on tape, and from time to time, she actually showed up live and in the flesh. The Flyers won two Stanley Cups with her singing, and they thought she was their good luck charm.

Kate was one of their best players. At least more civilized than Dave Schultz and his fellow goons who took thuggery to a new level, something which the much more talented players around the league were not accustomed to. It’s pretty hard to show your skills when you’re looking at a sucker punch when you least expect it.

And she was much better looking than the Sign Guy with his frizzy hair who held up silly signs for every occasion during Flyers home games.

This gangsterism lasted a mere two years. The Flyers tried it in the 1975/76 series against the Habs and learned quickly that muscle and skill is much better than just muscle. Schultz and the boys were no match for Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, and of course Lafleur, Lemaire, Shutt, Dryden et al. Montreal took over, and this ridiculous reign of terror came quickly to an end.

And the Flyers have done very little ever since.

So it wasn’t Kate Smith. It was simply that Montreal showed the Flyers how real hockey was played.

5 thoughts on “Kate Smith Was One Of The Better Players On The Flyers”

The most interesting thing for me re those Philly teams is how well they represented these two principles of bullying: 1) the vast majority of bullies work in gangs – think Nazi, Russian bolsheviks/collectivization, little-red-book-waving communist cadres, bloodthirsty Khmer Rouge, 2) the worst bullies are the anonymous ones, the ones that we don’t see until it is usually too late – hmmm, lemme see, Hitler (didn’t steal other kids’ lunch money, in fact, suspect the opposite), Stalin (nunnery, religious school), Mao (just luuuved his mommy and, of course, all those sweet little virginal chickadees he so voraciously consumed), Pol Pot (Sorbonne, such a nice little nird, eh?).

Flyers? Hehehe, Shultz, Sileski, Kelly, et al certainly worked together as a team within a team and they certainly did their dirt at the behest of The Fog and `Clarkie’ who were the real `big bullies’. At least, with Clarke, unlike most of the anonymous manipulating bullies he was recognized for what he was not that it changed anything …. even today, according to him Downey and the flyers are poor little victims. Ahh, yes, can’t argue there inasmuch as the system, the faceless bureacracy is very much selective in how it works. Witness the bs Stern pulled re the Horry assault on Steve Nash (Stern’s bs turned me off pro basketball) – oh, we must apply the rules as they stand, etc etc which is so pathetic it defies belief given that each and every game in all refereed events refs and umpires are obliged to make judgement calls based on the circumstances and how they see and interepret what goes down. David Stern – yup, nothing but a fake, a cheap bully hiding behind a false virtue – talk about a sport being compromised by extraneous social/political issues.

Thus, the so-called `initiatives’ against bullying repeatedly fail (I lol when I read how `bullying’ is being curtailed in schools) because the so-called self-annointed experts who, as usual either do not know what they are saying/doing or are fully cognizant of their hypocricy, do not take these two dynamics into consideration in any meaningful way. In other words, they simply refuse to look at what is staring them right in the face. So-called `Big Bullies’ rarely if ever operate alone, i.e. they are tools of the gang & the `unseen’ gang leader(s) or they are so visible they are easily identified and dealt with. So why this willful myopia? Because, bottom line, they would have to lump themselves into the `bully’ mix which is not something such virtuous and caring people want to do.

Hehehe, now back to `bullying’ la P. I must confess, I am somewhat in shock for two reasons: first, much to my surprise I have learned that there is at least one Sabre fan who knows more than 50 words of which under 50% are`duh?'; second, la P adduced two legitimate arguments in her favour: a) ADD in America/Canada is a good way to characterize the need for constant rapid stimulation – repetition is the essence of advertising and, yup, brainwashing – our society has been so assiduously planting and nurturing in the pop culture arena which therefore is a fair justification for la P’s sound-bite style which, I am obliged to admit is not such a bad exemplification thereof (hehe, how’s that for a mouthful?), and, b) her team lost so what’s to write about? Good point! But, I might note that `losing’ is also interesting and a more in depth post-mortem by la P would be of interest to Sabre fans and, if premised on general principles (there are shared reasons why teams win/lose), to all fans – after all, we are down 3-1 and it is vital that we understand why we have lost so we can bring corrective measures to bear. Also, la P, I am sure you would find Japanese culture interesting in this respect in that the Japanese have a huge respect/reverence for famous losers …hehehe, not that the Sabre punks are what close to being noble or even repectable for that matter.

But, even so, la P, you need hot chicks and the cutesy label still sticks although it can easily be rectified – a little colour, a little pizzazz, a little whimsy is good but not too much.

And, get rid of that dopey pic of Pominville – looks like his name should be Pom-Pomville. Hmm, are the punks morphing into neo-rah rahs?

Against the wall ,do or die, under pressure,who wants it more,whos got more heart,thats what they face tonite in 10 minute from now it will start,should be good.i read if they lose ther will be therapy available across the country…………..
for the fans…………………………GO HABS GO

“The worst bullies are the anonymous ones…”
1. I didn’t steal other kids’ lunch money.
2. I went to Catholic School (that’s the culprit).
3. I love my mommy.
4. I haven’t heard of Pol Pot since high school.

The signs are everywhere. My friend does call me Sarah Silverman… And man, Devil Hab, it’s finals week. Do you have to use all these big words and novel-esque posts? I’m already on sensory overload.

Kaners, I’m all over engraving one of those bricks at Bell Centre. You should etch in “Dennis Kane: Excellent Montreal.”